Censorship is ‘vote of no-confidence in Malta’s maturity’

So argued representatives of the Attorney General’s office last Wednesday, during the penultimate hearing in the appeal against a ban on Stitching – Anthony Nielsen’s award-winning drama, given a ‘14’ certificate in the UK, but deemed too ‘immoral’ and ‘obscene’ to be staged in Malta by the Film and Stage Classification Board.

Prof. Kenneth Wain, who lectures ethics at the University of Malta – and who was a witness in the original case which upheld the Censorship Board’s decision – argues that censorship laws like Malta’s are an indication of moral weakness rather than strength.

“The AG’s remark is unfortunate. It is both offensive to the other countries mentioned, as well as contradictory. If our society has such ‘sound values and high morals’, we don’t need draconian laws to protect it with. The fact that we have these laws means that the AG and others who sustain them have no confidence in the values and morality of the people.”

The ban on Stitching is one of a number of recent indications that Malta is tightening its traditionally rigid laws which set limitations of freedom of speech. The same AG’s office is currently appealing against the court’s acquittal of author Alex Vella Gera and editor Mark Camilleri. over the publication of an ‘obscene’ short story in a campus magazine in 2010.

If the verdict is overturned, both face the possibility of a prison sentence. Convictions have already been handed down by the courts over ‘religious’ costumes worn at carnival parties, among other ‘crimes’.

Is this a sign that Malta’s moral fibre is strengthening over time? According to Prof. Wain, the very opposite is true.

“Whatever is deemed to require protection is also deemed weak. Otherwise, by definition, it would not require protection,” he told MaltaToday. “Censorship laws for adults relegate them to the status of children, infantilise them. Those who justify such laws have no faith in the moral maturity of their society. One needs enforcement, and obedience to the law, only when one fears that people lack values and morals if left to themselves.”

Censorship, he adds, is a vote of no confidence in the maturity of the Maltese people.

“I think the AG has his argument the wrong way around: a society is morally weak that needs to protect its morality with draconian laws”.

The final hearing in the Stitching appeal will be held on 5 December. Producers Unifaun Theatre, together with director Chris Gatt, have already declared their intention to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights should the ban be upheld.